There’s a reason why foreign leaders didn’t attempt to invade their neighbors under the first Trump administration.
New audio that was recorded at a private event hosted by President Trump reveals the 47th President threatened to bomb Russia and China if they attempted to invade their neighbors.
Trump in the audio can be heard saying he told Putin he would bomb Moscow, and he told Xi Jinping he would bomb Beijing.
Listen to it here:
🇺🇸 A leaked audio recording allegedly captures Donald Trump saying:
“I told the President of China, ‘If you enter Taiwan, I’ll level Beijing.’ He thought I was crazy. He said, ‘You’re going to bomb Beijing?’ I said, ‘I have no other choice.’”
— Update NEWS (@UpdateNews724) July 9, 2025
Newsweek provided some context for the new audio:
U.S. President Donald Trump said he had separately warned both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping that he would bomb their respective capitals if either of them invaded their neighbors, newly released audio broadcast by CNN shows.
The U.S. president was recorded speaking at a private fundraiser in 2024 about his conversations with Putin and Xi.
“With Putin I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m gonna bomb the s*** out of Moscow,'” Trump is heard saying, recounting his version of their conversation. He also said with Xi he also threatened to “bomb the s*** out of Beijing” if it invaded Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own.
When contacted for comment, the White House told Newsweek in a statement that “as President Trump has said time and again, Russia never dared invade Ukraine when he was in office. It happened only when Biden was in office.”
Trump has repeatedly said that if he had been president, Putin would not have invaded Ukraine. After months of what many saw as him promoting closer ties between Washington and Moscow, Trump is becoming increasingly critical of Putin’s intransigence to U.S. proposals for a ceasefire in Ukraine, which faces continuing drone strikes.
In recent days, President Trump has appeared to be irritated with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Just watch:
"We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin. He's very nice all the time but it turns out to be meaningless."
It took Donald Trump a full decade to realize that Vladimir Putin has been playing him for the clown that he is.
— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) July 8, 2025
Politico had these details to share about Trump’s current stance on Russia:
President Donald Trump, appearing fed up, accused the Russian President Vladimir Putin of spouting “bullshit” and said Tuesday he was “very strongly” considering supporting a punishing sanctions bill to bring Russia to heel.
The president’s interest in the legislation came as Senate Majority Leader John Thune stressed there is “a lot of interest” in the legislation among senators, too, and teased that he could bring the legislation to the floor soon.
“We’ll have more to say about that later this week,” he said.
The legislation would impose high tariffs on countries that import Russian energy and implement secondary sanctions on foreign firms that support Russian energy production. While it has for some time had the votes to pass in both chambers of Congress, Republican leadership has not brought it to the floor, waiting for a signal from Trump.
The president’s new level of interest in enacting crippling sanctions comes not only as his patience with Putin has worn thin, but also after Congress’ legislative agenda has cleared after passage of the GOP’s megabill.
“I’m looking,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting. “It’s totally at my option. They pass it totally at my option, and to terminate totally at my option. And I’m looking at it very strongly.”
Trump has told allies privately that he doesn’t believe sanctions would be effective in deterring Putin; and, during a meeting last month with Germany’s chancellor, he criticized the legislation as “a harsh bill, very harsh.”
ADVERTISEMENTBut his comments during the Cabinet meeting signaled that he could be changing his mind, or at the very least encouraging the Senate to send the bill to his desk while stopping short of committing to signing it into law — a means, said one person familiar with the administration’s thinking and granted anonymity to discuss it, of increasing the president’s options and leverage over Putin.
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